Pottstown Area Regional Recreation Committee

PARRC Meeting Minutes July 28, 2021 a Virtual Meeting In Attendance: Michael Lenhart, Borough of Pottstown Bill Keohane, Lower Pottsgrove Township Charlie Valentine, West Pottsgrove Township Tim Konetchy, Community Planner, MCPC Pete Hiryak, Douglass Township Alyssa DeFlavia, PAHWF Jay Erb, North Coventry Township Tricia McCloskey, PARRC Planner Karen Nocella, East Coventry Township Meeting notes: 1. Call to Order – 4:08pm. Pledge of Allegiance. 2. Introductions were made- Alyssa DeFlavia was reintroduced. 3. Meeting minutes from May 26, 2021, were motioned for approval by C. Valentine and seconded by P. Hiryak with no revisions. Abstentions: K. Nocella and M. Lenhart. 4. Executive and Subcommittee Reports. C. Paretti sent the Treasurer’s Report prior to the meeting. 5. Planner’s Report. T. McCloskey reviewed her activity for the last month, including the submission of four grant applications to the Giant/Healing the Planet Grant Program. She also indicated she spent time working on the quarterly report and the trails sensor reports for the June meeting, worked through issues on the website and the Facebook page with A. DeFlavia, and started working on the Standard Operating Procedures manual. She also indicated that 3 trail sensors appear to be non-functional and J. Erb said he knew a person at Chester County who might be able to help troubleshoot the problem. M. Lenhart stated that T. McCloskey attended the PAHWF’s webinar on the new framework for the grant program and asked if anyone else had attended the training. T. McCloskey will send an email with the PowerPoint presentation from the webinar to the group. 6. Old Business a. Intern’s Update. A. DeFlavia stated she has been posting up to three Facebook posts per week on the PARRC page. She requested that PARRC members send anything they want posted to her or T. McCloskey. T. McCloskey also asked that PARRC members like the PARRC page and invite friends to like the page as well. A. DeFlavia also stated that an on-line PARRC newsletter is also under development. b. Strategic Plan Tactics: Subcommittees • Financial Sustainability Subcommittee: M. Lenhart indicated that the committee met and discussed future funding. He indicated that moving forward the primary source of funding will be from grants, with William Penn Foundation funding being a potential primary source for funding. M. Lenhart stated that the way to demonstrate success to William Penn and other funders was to compile a list of projects with were successfully completed with grant funding. He indicated that moving forward, a project type that would demonstrate this would be design and engineering of a trail section from the Tri-County Trail Plan. This needs to be discussed individually by each municipality. B. Keohane agreed that this is a good strategy. J. Erb stated that N. Coventry already has a trail design project started, with Coventry Trail connection between Kenilworth Park and the Schuylkill River Trail, but additional funding is needed. M. Lenhart asked if the details of this project could be sent to the Financial Sustainability Subcommittee. B. Keohane stated that another way to bring in funding might be through corporate sponsorships on signage, if a sign design for the PARRC communities could be 1  developed, also if at some point PARRC may want to market itself as an organization that can mentor / consult other municipalities on how to develop a multi-municipal parks planning group. • Events Committee: K. Nocella stated that she, J. Erb and C. Colistra will get together soon to meet. J. Erb stated that having a list of each municipality’s recreation events would be helpful as a start. T. McCloskey is to send an email to each municipality requesting this list. • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Subcommittee: T. McCloskey stated that the Strategic Plan states that this subcommittee needs to be set up at some point and she has done a bit of research on DEI policy for the SOP Manual. M. Lenhart stated he became aware that there may be future funding for park and recreation DEI related initiatives. B. Keohane suggested that PAHWF may have DEI policy that we may be able to use as a basis for our DEI policy. M. Lenhart stated that NRPA may also have policy that we can review. B. Keohane offered the link recmanagement.com for potential policy. c. PARRC Future Meetings/Format. M. Lenhart indicated that Borough Hall is available for in-person meetings for August since the PAHWF space is not yet available. He stated that this space will allow for a hybrid meeting format. A new time was agreed upon at 4:30pm, in Council Chambers. M. Lenhart will confirm the availability with the Borough. He and B. Keohane will work together on the wording for the readvertisement. 7. New Business – a. Playground Inspections: T. McCloskey stated that she needs to check M. Lane’s reports to see which playgrounds need to be inspected. She anticipates some inspections will be needed during late summer or fall. M. Lenhart stated that T. McCloskey should coordinate with township staff prior to conducting any inspections and that inspections should be done with a staff person present. b. Sharing Schoolyards. K. Nocella stated that East Coventry will receive their $12,500 check from TCN in the first week of August. A site meeting at East Coventry Elementary School at the old building will be held on Thursday of this week. The agreement will be drafted by Jackie Krumrine at OJR School District which should help save money on legal fees. Updated play equipment has been discussed and the cost of this needs to be examined. After the site meeting is held, K. Nocella will discuss next steps with T. McCloskey. T. McCloskey stated that Upper Pottsgrove may be another opportunity for a shared schoolyard agreement with Hollenbach Park and the Middle School. 8. Grant Announcements – a. PAHWF: T. McCloskey stated that she submitted two LOIs to PAHWF for Lower Pottsgrove and the Borough of Pottstown. She is keeping track of which municipalities are able to apply to PAHWF and PMRPC for the current rounds. b. PMRPC: T. Konetchy stated that the opening date for the PMRPC grant program in not finalized but that the final submission date will be October 31st. He stated that an email press release will be sent out when the grant program opens. 9. Partner Updates • Douglass – P. Hiryak stated that there was nothing new to report at this time. T. McCloskey asked about the playground access improvements at Douglass Park and P. Hiryak stated they should be completed in the next few weeks. • East Coventry – K. Nocella stated that through the Audubon Society, residents will be receiving 50 free trees to plant along the Pigeon Creek. A volunteer workday will be held on October 2nd to plant the trees. Additionally, a Fall Walk is scheduled for September 23rd and the focus will be on the trails and birds of Ellis Woods Park. K. Nocella also mentioned the installation of many new blue bird boxes 2  throughout the parks in East Coventry. Additionally, she mentioned that on 9/11, the Litter Lifters group will be working on trash removal along Route 100 between Fairview Road and the high school. • Lower Pottsgrove – B. Keohane shared big news that the Gerald Richards Construction project is moving forward do some new funds that have been made available to help with the project. Through the efforts of Ed Wagner, $150,000 was provided by the township and an additional $65,000 was provided by DCNR. The project does not have to be rebid. Additional. B. Keohane mentioned that an LOI was submitted to PAHWF for play equipment in Sanatoga Park. The summer concert series has ended and was successful. • North Coventry – J. Erb states that on 7/31 a disc golf tournament will held at Kenilworth Park and a local non-profit will help to run the event. Additionally, he stated that a medical incident happened at Coventry Woods recently and the need for some type of vehicle to bring people out of remote locations is a concern for the police. Discussion was held about the type of vehicle that may be needed and how this would be paid for. • Pottstown Borough – M. Lenhart stated that the Pottstown Pet Fair is on for 9/11. He stated that upwards of 2,000 come to the event which is a lot of people considering the short time duration. M. Lenhart also provided an update on the proposed remediation at Pollock Park. He thinks that the remediation report will be approved by DEP this year which will help move the project along. M. Lenhart also stated that Peyton Ridenour from North Coventry will be competing in BMX events Olympics • Upper Pottsgrove –C. Paretti indicated that Fox Hill Trail improvement project is well underway and that the closeout documents are started. The closeout documents for the Sunset Park improvements have been completed. The Open Space Committee is also looking into the algae problem at the pond in Sunset Park. J. Erb indicated they had a problem with algae and worked with Solitude Lake Management to control the problem. • West Pottsgrove – No park and recreation updates but a bridge on Grosstown Road will be dedicated to Rover Vallano. • MCPC-T. Konetchy indicated they are working on grant closeout. • PAHWF – No additional updates. • CCPC – Not present. 10. Public Comment – none. 11. Action items – B. Keohane will coordinate with the Borough on the readvertisement of the PARRC meeting date and location. 12. Next PARRC Meeting Agenda items – Please send to T. McCloskey. The next meeting is August 25, 2021, at 4:30pm. It will be at Borough Hall Council Chambers. 13. Adjournment – 5:35pm. Recorder: T. McCloskey 2021 Meeting Schedule (All meetings to be held at 5:00 PM in the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation Conference Room, 152 East High Street, 5th floor, Pottstown, PA 19464 unless otherwise noted): January 27 February 24 March 24 April 28 May 26 June 23 July 28 August 25 September 22 October 27 December 1 Next meeting: July 28, 2021 Location: Virtual Meeting 4:00 PM 3